Figure 3. Disassembly of cell-cell contacts upon upregulation of MSX1 in a HUAEC monolayer.

(a–c) Immunofluorescence staining on HUAECs transduced with Cherry- (a; control) or MSX1-encoding (b) lentivirus for the adherens junction marker VEC (green) and nuclear marker TO-PRO-3 (blue) and the corresponding quantification in (c). A reduced expression of VEC is observed in MSX1-overexpressing cells. Data in (c) are expressed as mean area (in μm²) per cell perimeter (in μm) ± s.e.m. of the total number of measured cells (n = 16 for all conditions; *P < 0.05 versus corresponding control by Student’s t-test). (d–f) Staining of Zonula Occludens-1 (ZO1; green) and nuclear marker TO-PRO-3 (blue). MSX1-overexpressing cells (e) show a reduction of ZO1 expression as compared to control cells (d). Panel (f) shows the corresponding quantification in which data are expressed as mean area of positive ZO1 signal (in μm²) per cell perimeter (in μm) ± s.e.m. of the total number of measured cells (n = 16 for all conditions; *P < 0.05 versus corresponding control by Student’s t-test). Scale bars: 25 μm.